Edward Bransfield
Encyclopedia
Edward Bransfield was a master of the British Royal Navy
and considered the discoverer of the continent of Antarctica.
, County Cork
, Ireland, in c.1785. While little is known of Edward's family or early life, the Bransfields were thought to have been a well-known and respected Catholic family. The Bransfields may have had enough money to pay for Edward's education, but because of the Penal Laws it is more likely that he attended a local hedge school
. On 2 June 1803, Bransfield, then just eighteen years old, was taken from his father's fishing boat and impressed
into the Royal Navy.
He began as an ordinary seaman on the 1st rate ship of the line (110 guns) Ville de Paris, where he shared living quarters with William Edward Parry
, then a twelve year old midshipman, who would also go on to make a name for himself in Polar exploration. Bransfield was rated as an able seaman in 1805 and was appointed to the 1st rate ship of the line (110 guns) Royal Sovereign (which had taken part in the battle of Trafalgar
in 1805) in 1806 as an able seaman
, then 2nd master's mate
in 1808, midshipman
in 1808, clerk
in 1809 and midshipman again in 1811. By 1812 he had achieved the rank of second master
, and in the same year he was made acting master on the Goldfinch (brig-sloop of the Cherokee class with 10 guns and commanded by The Rt Hon Sir William Cornwallis).
Between the years 1814 and 1816 he served briefly, as master on many 5th rate ships and, on 21 February 1816, was appointed master of the ship Severn a 4th rate with 50 guns, where he participated in the Bombardment of Algiers.
During September 1817, he was appointed master of the Andromache under the command of Captain W H Shirreff
. It was during this tour of duty that he was posted to the Royal Navy's new Pacific Squadron off Valparaíso
in Chile.
Chilean republicans were fighting for independence from Spain, but Valparaíso had been neglected during the colonial period and was a mean, uninviting place. Nevertheless, if it had not been for this commission, Bransfield would never have become famous.
During 1773 James Cook
sailed beyond the Antarctic Circle—noting with pride in his journal that he was "undoubtedly the first that ever crossed that line.". The next year, he circumnavigated Antarctica completely and reached a latitude of 71° 10', before being driven back by the ice. It was the furthest south anyone had ever gone.
Although he failed to see Antarctica, Cook dispelled once and for all the fanciful notion of a fertile, populous continent surrounding the pole. Not surprisingly, the British Admiralty lost interest in the Antarctic and turned its attention instead to the ongoing search for the Northwest Passage
. Almost half a century passed before anyone else travelled as far south as Cook.
Then during 1819 while rounding Cape Horn
, William Smith
, the owner and skipper of an English merchant ship, the Williams, was driven south by adverse winds and discovered what came to be known as the South Shetland Islands
. When news of his discovery reached Valparaíso, Captain Shirreff decided that the matter warranted further investigation. The Williams was chartered and Shirreff appointed Bransfield, two midshipmen and the surgeon from the ship HMS Slaney, who were dispatched to survey the newly discovered islands. Smith remained aboard, acting as Bransfield's pilot.
After a brief and uneventful voyage into the Southern Ocean, Bransfield and Smith reached the South Shetland Islands. Bransfield landed on King George Island and took formal possession on behalf of King George III (who had died the day before on 29 January 1820), before proceeding in a south-westerly direction past Deception Island not investigating or charting it. Turning south, he crossed what is now known as the Bransfield Strait
(named for him by James Weddell in 1822), and on 30 January 1820 sighted Trinity Peninsula
, the northernmost point of the Antarctic mainland. "Such was the discovery of Antarctica," writes the English writer Roland Huntford.
Unknown to Bransfield, two days earlier, 28 January 1820, the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen
may have caught sight of an icy shoreline now known to have been part of East Antarctica. On the basis of this sighting and the co-ordinates given in his log-book, Bellingshausen has been credited by some (e.g., the British polar historian A. G. E. Jones) with the discovery of the continent.
Bransfield made a note in his log of two "high mountains, covered with snow", one of which was subsequently named Mount Bransfield
, by Dumont D'Urville, in his honour. Unlike Bellingshausen, Bransfield discovered unambiguous geological formations that could not be confused with pack ice.
Having charted a segment of the Trinity Peninsula, Bransfield then followed the edge of the icesheet in a north-easterly direction and discovered various points on Elephant Island and Clarence Island
, which he also formally claimed for the British Crown. He did not sail around Elephant Island and did not name it (it is named for elephant seals), although he charted Clarence Island completely.
When Bransfield arrived finally back in Valparaíso he gave his charts and journal to Captain Shirreff who delivered them to the Admiralty. The original charts are still in the possession of the Hydrographic department in Taunton, Somerset, but Bransfield's journal has been lost. The Admiralty, it seems, was still more interested in the search for the Northwest Passage
. However, two private accounts of Bransfield's historic voyage were published during 1821.
During recent years the journal of one of the midshipmen, Charles Poynter, was discovered in New Zealand and an account has been published by the Hakluyt Society, edited by Richard Campbell, RN.
, England. His wife survived him and was buried in the same grave during 1863.
Bransfield Island
, Bransfield Strait
, Bransfield Trough, Bransfield Rocks and Mount Bransfield
were all named in his honour.
During 2000 the Royal Mail issued a commemorative stamp in his honour, but as no likeness of the discoverer of Antarctica could be found, the stamp depicted instead RRS Bransfield
, an Antarctic surveying vessel named after him. In 1999 Edward Bransfield's grave, discovered in a deteriorated state in a Brighton churchyard, was renovated (funded by charitable donations) by Sheila Bransfield, who aspires to be Edward Bransfield's official biographer. The event was marked by a ceremony attended by numerous dignitaries.
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
and considered the discoverer of the continent of Antarctica.
Early life
Edward Bransfield was born in BallinacurraBallinacurra, County Cork
Ballinacurra is a small harbour village on the outskirts of Midleton, County Cork. It is about 20 miles east of Cork city.The village grew up around the where the Owenacurra River meets the east channel of Cork Harbour...
, County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland, in c.1785. While little is known of Edward's family or early life, the Bransfields were thought to have been a well-known and respected Catholic family. The Bransfields may have had enough money to pay for Edward's education, but because of the Penal Laws it is more likely that he attended a local hedge school
Hedge school
A hedge school is the name given to an educational practice in 18th and 19th century Ireland, so called due to its rural nature. It came about as local educated men began an oral tradition of teaching the community...
. On 2 June 1803, Bransfield, then just eighteen years old, was taken from his father's fishing boat and impressed
Impressment
Impressment, colloquially, "the Press", was the act of taking men into a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to...
into the Royal Navy.
He began as an ordinary seaman on the 1st rate ship of the line (110 guns) Ville de Paris, where he shared living quarters with William Edward Parry
William Edward Parry
Sir William Edward Parry was an English rear-admiral and Arctic explorer, who in 1827 attempted one of the earliest expeditions to the North Pole...
, then a twelve year old midshipman, who would also go on to make a name for himself in Polar exploration. Bransfield was rated as an able seaman in 1805 and was appointed to the 1st rate ship of the line (110 guns) Royal Sovereign (which had taken part in the battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
in 1805) in 1806 as an able seaman
Able seaman
An able seaman is an unlicensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination of these roles.-Watchstander:...
, then 2nd master's mate
Master's mate
Master's mate is an obsolete rating which was used by the Royal Navy, United States Navy and merchant services in both countries for a senior petty officer who assisted the master...
in 1808, midshipman
Midshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
in 1808, clerk
Captain's clerk
A captain's clerk was a rating, now obsolete, in the Royal Navy for a person employed by the captain to keep his records, correspondence, and accounts. The regulations of the Royal Navy demanded that a purser serve at least one year as a captain's clerk, so the latter was often a young man working...
in 1809 and midshipman again in 1811. By 1812 he had achieved the rank of second master
Second master
A deputy head teacher, deputy headmaster or deputy headmistress is the second most senior teacher in a school in the United Kingdom and elsewhere....
, and in the same year he was made acting master on the Goldfinch (brig-sloop of the Cherokee class with 10 guns and commanded by The Rt Hon Sir William Cornwallis).
Between the years 1814 and 1816 he served briefly, as master on many 5th rate ships and, on 21 February 1816, was appointed master of the ship Severn a 4th rate with 50 guns, where he participated in the Bombardment of Algiers.
During September 1817, he was appointed master of the Andromache under the command of Captain W H Shirreff
William Shirreff
William Shirreff was a Royal Navy officer, Captain of the frigate HMS Andromache patrolling the west coast of South America in protection of the British interests in the region and support of local independence movement against Spanish authority in the early 19th century...
. It was during this tour of duty that he was posted to the Royal Navy's new Pacific Squadron off Valparaíso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
in Chile.
Chilean republicans were fighting for independence from Spain, but Valparaíso had been neglected during the colonial period and was a mean, uninviting place. Nevertheless, if it had not been for this commission, Bransfield would never have become famous.
Antarctica
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
sailed beyond the Antarctic Circle—noting with pride in his journal that he was "undoubtedly the first that ever crossed that line.". The next year, he circumnavigated Antarctica completely and reached a latitude of 71° 10', before being driven back by the ice. It was the furthest south anyone had ever gone.
Although he failed to see Antarctica, Cook dispelled once and for all the fanciful notion of a fertile, populous continent surrounding the pole. Not surprisingly, the British Admiralty lost interest in the Antarctic and turned its attention instead to the ongoing search for the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
. Almost half a century passed before anyone else travelled as far south as Cook.
Then during 1819 while rounding Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
, William Smith
William Smith (mariner)
William Smith was the English captain who discovered the South Shetland Islands, an archipelago off the Graham Land in Antarctica....
, the owner and skipper of an English merchant ship, the Williams, was driven south by adverse winds and discovered what came to be known as the South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
. When news of his discovery reached Valparaíso, Captain Shirreff decided that the matter warranted further investigation. The Williams was chartered and Shirreff appointed Bransfield, two midshipmen and the surgeon from the ship HMS Slaney, who were dispatched to survey the newly discovered islands. Smith remained aboard, acting as Bransfield's pilot.
After a brief and uneventful voyage into the Southern Ocean, Bransfield and Smith reached the South Shetland Islands. Bransfield landed on King George Island and took formal possession on behalf of King George III (who had died the day before on 29 January 1820), before proceeding in a south-westerly direction past Deception Island not investigating or charting it. Turning south, he crossed what is now known as the Bransfield Strait
Bransfield Strait
Bransfield Strait is a body of water about wide extending for in a general northeast-southwest direction between the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula. It was named in about 1825 by James Weddell, Master, Royal Navy, for Edward Bransfield, Master, RN, who charted the South Shetland...
(named for him by James Weddell in 1822), and on 30 January 1820 sighted Trinity Peninsula
Trinity Peninsula
Trinity Peninsula is the extreme northern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula, extending northeastward for about from a line connecting Cape Kjellman and Cape Longing. Dating back more than a century, chartmakers used various names for this portion of the Antarctic peninsula, each name having some...
, the northernmost point of the Antarctic mainland. "Such was the discovery of Antarctica," writes the English writer Roland Huntford.
Unknown to Bransfield, two days earlier, 28 January 1820, the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen
Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen was an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer, who ultimately rose to the rank of Admiral...
may have caught sight of an icy shoreline now known to have been part of East Antarctica. On the basis of this sighting and the co-ordinates given in his log-book, Bellingshausen has been credited by some (e.g., the British polar historian A. G. E. Jones) with the discovery of the continent.
Bransfield made a note in his log of two "high mountains, covered with snow", one of which was subsequently named Mount Bransfield
Mount Bransfield
Mount Bransfield is a prominent conical-topped, ice-covered mountain, high, rising southwest of Cape Dubouzet at the northeast tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was discovered by a French expedition, 1837–40, under Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville, who named it for Edward Bransfield, Master,...
, by Dumont D'Urville, in his honour. Unlike Bellingshausen, Bransfield discovered unambiguous geological formations that could not be confused with pack ice.
Having charted a segment of the Trinity Peninsula, Bransfield then followed the edge of the icesheet in a north-easterly direction and discovered various points on Elephant Island and Clarence Island
Clarence Island (South Shetland Islands)
Clarence Island is long and the easternmost of the South Shetland Islands of the British Antarctic Territory. The name dates back to at least 1821 and is now established in international usage. Ernest Shackleton saw Clarence Island on his famous boat voyage but landed on Elephant Island...
, which he also formally claimed for the British Crown. He did not sail around Elephant Island and did not name it (it is named for elephant seals), although he charted Clarence Island completely.
When Bransfield arrived finally back in Valparaíso he gave his charts and journal to Captain Shirreff who delivered them to the Admiralty. The original charts are still in the possession of the Hydrographic department in Taunton, Somerset, but Bransfield's journal has been lost. The Admiralty, it seems, was still more interested in the search for the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
. However, two private accounts of Bransfield's historic voyage were published during 1821.
During recent years the journal of one of the midshipmen, Charles Poynter, was discovered in New Zealand and an account has been published by the Hakluyt Society, edited by Richard Campbell, RN.
Later life
The remainder of Edward Bransfield's life was obscure. He died on 31 October 1852 in his sixty-seventh year and was buried in BrightonBrighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, England. His wife survived him and was buried in the same grave during 1863.
Bransfield Island
Bransfield Island
Bransfield Island is an island nearly , lying southwest of D'Urville Island off the northeast end of the Antarctic Peninsula. The name Point Bransfield, after Edward Bransfield, Master, Royal Navy, was given in 1842 by a British expedition under James Clark Ross to the low western termination of...
, Bransfield Strait
Bransfield Strait
Bransfield Strait is a body of water about wide extending for in a general northeast-southwest direction between the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula. It was named in about 1825 by James Weddell, Master, Royal Navy, for Edward Bransfield, Master, RN, who charted the South Shetland...
, Bransfield Trough, Bransfield Rocks and Mount Bransfield
Mount Bransfield
Mount Bransfield is a prominent conical-topped, ice-covered mountain, high, rising southwest of Cape Dubouzet at the northeast tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was discovered by a French expedition, 1837–40, under Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville, who named it for Edward Bransfield, Master,...
were all named in his honour.
During 2000 the Royal Mail issued a commemorative stamp in his honour, but as no likeness of the discoverer of Antarctica could be found, the stamp depicted instead RRS Bransfield
RRS Bransfield
RRS Bransfield was an ice-strengthened cargo vessel, purpose-built for the British Antarctic Survey .-History:RRS Bransfield was designed by consultants Graham & Woolnaugh of Liverpool for NERC, and built by Robb Caledon Shipbuilders Ltd, Leith...
, an Antarctic surveying vessel named after him. In 1999 Edward Bransfield's grave, discovered in a deteriorated state in a Brighton churchyard, was renovated (funded by charitable donations) by Sheila Bransfield, who aspires to be Edward Bransfield's official biographer. The event was marked by a ceremony attended by numerous dignitaries.
See also
- Nathaniel PalmerNathaniel PalmerNathaniel Brown Palmer was an American seal hunter, explorer, sailing captain, and ship designer. He was born in Stonington, Connecticut.-Sealing career and Antarctic exploration:...
, the first American to see Antarctica, on 17 November 1820 - Fabian Gottlieb von BellingshausenFabian Gottlieb von BellingshausenFabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen was an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer, who ultimately rose to the rank of Admiral...
- History of AntarcticaHistory of AntarcticaThe history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe...
- Livingston Island
Further reading
- Michael Smith, 2010, 'Great Endeavour – Ireland's Antarctic Explorers , Collins Press